Program Notes
Poles Apart: Music of Finland and
Argentina
Program notes by Steven Ledbetter
Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Opus 39
Jean Julius Christian Sibelius was born in
Hämeenlinna (then known by the Swedish name
Tavastehus), Finland, on December 8, 1865, and died
in Jarvenpää, near Helsinki, on September 20, 1957.
He took the gallicized form of his first name (which
had originally been Johan) in emulation of an uncle.
He composed his First Symphony in 1898 and 1899 and
conducted its first performance in Helsinki on April
26 of the latter year. The symphony is scored for
two flutes (doubling piccolos), two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets,
three trombones and tuba, timpani, bass drum,
cymbals, triangle, harp, and strings.
It always comes as a surprise to learn that a
composer renowned as a nationalistic hero in his
homeland was not a native speaker of the language.
Sibelius was born to a Swedish-speaking family in a
small town in south central Finland and only began
to speak some Finnish from the age of eight. He
entered a Finnish-language school at eleven, but not
until he was a young man did he feel completely at
home in the language. (In this respect he was not
alone; Austrian cultural domination of
Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the nineteenth century
meant that Smetana was more fluent in German than in
Bohemian, and Liszt, though proud to be regarded as
a Hungarian composer, barely spoke the language at
all.)
Musical studies began with the violin, and soon
he aimed at a career as a professional virtuoso. But
in 1885, after an abortive attempt at legal studies,
he undertook to pursue composition with Martin
Wegelius in Helsinki. Further studies in Berlin
introduced him to the newest music, including
Strauss's Don Juan at its premiere. He was
usually in debt, apparently unable to avoid
financial extravagance in the German capital, and
already drinking heavily, a habit that remained with
him. After his return to Finland in 1891 he composed
the choral symphony Kullervo, which was so
successful at its premiere in April 1892 that he was
immediately established as a leading figure in
Finnish music, a position that was never seriously
challenged thereafter.
The following seven years saw the composition of
a series of scores for dramatic production, a failed
operatic attempt, and--most important--a group of
purely orchestral scores, En saga and the four
symphonic poems about Lemminkäinen, a character from
the Finnish national epic Kalevala. These
culminated in his first symphony, composed evidently
in part as a musical response to Tchaikovsky's
Pathétique Symphony, which had been performed
in Helsinki already in 1894 and again in 1897. By
the autumn of 1898, Sibelius was totally absorbed in
the work at a time of great political tension in
Finland and of personal concern as well. A diary
entry of September 9 reflects his mood: "Autumn sun
and bitter thoughts....How willingly I would have
sacrificed some of the financial support I have
received if I only had some sympathy and
understanding of my art--if someone loved my work.
O, you slave of your moods, their plaything...."
These feelings may be reflected in the autumnal
colors of much of the score, and especially in its
lonely opening, a solitary clarinet bravely singing
its lament over the chill background thunder of a
long roll on the timpani. But although he complained
of misunderstanding and lack of sympathy, his art
was still rooted in the nineteenth century both
harmonically and thematically. His first work to be
heard in Boston was the Second Symphony in 1904, at
which time it was received with general
incomprehension, even by such future prominent
proponents of his music as critic Olin Downes. But
the First offered fewer knotty problems, and once it
achieved performance, it was generally accorded
favor with audiences both in Finland and elsewhere.
Because of Sibelius's demonstrated interest in
the Kalevala, not to mention the
passionately dramatic character of much of the music
in the symphony, some critics claimed to find a
literary program in the music, every theme
functioning like a Wagnerian leitmotiv for a
character or event. But Sibelius emphatically denied
that there was any connection whatever; his symphony
(by implication) is a purely abstract musical
structure, however characterful its content.
The clarinet solo that opens the symphony dies
away on a sustained G, the preceding
melodic phrase hinting that the piece will be in G
minor. But just as the clarinet settles on its last
note, the second violins begin a tremulous sextuplet
figure consisting of the notes G and B,
which thus hint at G major. We are in fact listening
to the home key coalesce out of the very ether, the
tonic of E minor appearing clearly only after the
first violins begin their muscular statement. A
contrasting idea built on a pair of hovering
alternating notes in a characteristic rhythm leads
seamlessly to a fortissimo restatement for full
orchestra of the main E minor theme. A bright
tremolo in the strings, joined by the harp, brings
in the woodwinds with a dancelike transitional idea
derived possibly from the opening clarinet line. An
extraordinarily long pedal point—a note held in the
bass without changing—underlies the second theme
material, which appears in expressive dialogues
between the woodwind instruments over a hushed
rumbling in the strings. The exposition ends with a
unison pizzicato in the strings, twice repeated. The
musical argument of the development further
intertwines the musical ideas already heard, but
with a tendency to grow progressively more
chromatic. A momentary lyric interlude (with two
solo violins in dialogue) turns into more dramatic
stuff with the climax of downward-moving chromatic
scales in the woodwinds against upward-rushing
chromatic figures (at twice the speed) in the lower
strings. Suddenly, against all this activity, the
upper strings sing the melody from early in the
movement that preceded the fortissimo statement of
the first theme. Sibelius works this around to G
major (where we first heard it) and plunges us into
the heart of the recapitulation, omitting the first
main theme statement, since the fortissimo
repetition is about to return full force. The
recapitulation is a condensed intensification of the
beginning, ending in darkly muttering strings.
The slow movement is often cited as the part of
the symphony most strikingly influenced by
Tchaikovsky's Pathétique. It is a kind of
poignant rondo, its C minor melody alternating with
other ideas based on the same rhythms and phrase
structure, sometimes inverted from a falling to a
rising theme. Except for a few woodwind interludes,
the colors are predominantly dark. The sadness
sometimes explodes in an outburst which eventually
dies away in the return of the main theme.
The rambunctious third movement has some of the
earthiness of Bruckner's symphonic scherzos, the
headlong rhythmic drive of the pizzicato strings at
the opening reinforced by the vigor of the timpani
and the most important thematic motive in the
strings, which has a modal, folklike character. The
Trio is a shade slower and altogether more lyrical,
even pastoral in feeling, evoking dreams of the
countryside driven out by the sudden return of the
scherzo.
At the beginning of the finale, the strings give
out in unison an expansive, passionate version of
the hesitating clarinet melody heard at the very
opening of the symphony, now harmonized by the
brasses. A certain degree of questioning in the
woodwinds, eventually answered by the strings, leads
into the dramatically charged Allegro theme that
runs through the bulk of the movement, except for
the striking moments of contrast provided by the
wonderful singing theme on the violins' G string,
bringing a chorale-like dignity into the heart of
the activity. The symphony closes with an echo of
the pizzicato chords that ended the first movement.
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Aconcagua, concerto for bandoneon and strings
Astor Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata,
Argentina, on March 11, 1921, and died in Buenos
Aires on July 5, 1992. He composed his concerto
Aconcagua in September and October 1979. In addition
to the solo bandoneon, the score calls for timpani,
bass drum, guiro, triangle, harp, piano, and
strings.
In the United States the tango was a popular
dance genre first introduced from Latin America by
Vernon and Irene Castle in 1914 and then used for
such popular songs as Sigmund Romberg's Softly
as in a morning sunrise (The New Moon,
1928). Just as American jazz developed in the
yeasty mix of cultures in New Orleans, Argentine
tango blends elements of European—Spanish, Jewish,
German, and Italian—with other features from the New
World. Tangos in America came to be associated in
the popular mind with bordellos and lascivious
activity, partly through the films of Rudolph
Valentino, a favorite with female audiences in the
’20s for his sultry sensuality. By mid‑century,
tangos were parodied in Broadway shows (as in
Hernando’s Hideaway from Pajama Game,
1954). But in Latin America, the tango went through
no such decline. It was and has remained a popular
form of music‑making, often approaching the level of
light classics.
The Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla studied
composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, but
recognized (with Boulanger’s enthusiastic support)
that he had found his true voice in the tradition of
tango. He was extremely popular in his homeland as a
composer of dances and songs, but he also extended
the concept of tango to a degree not recognized by
many purists, who wished to stick with the
old‑fashioned tradition. Indeed, it would be fair to
compare Piazzolla to a handful of other composers
who succeeded in elevating popular dance genres to
substantial works of art—Chopin, Johann Strauss the
younger, and Scott Joplin. Each of these composers
were able to reveal unsuspected riches in a “simple”
dance form. The Chopin mazurkas, which evoke an
astonishing range of expression from the most
exuberant and extrovert to a dark intimacy, perhaps
come closest to serving as an analogy to Piazzolla’s
achievements with the tango.
The bulk of Piazzolla’s output is in the form of
chamber music for a quintet featuring his own
instrument, the bandoneon, a type of
button-accordion, or concertina, developed in
Germany about 1840, which became the principal solo
instrument connected with the tango in Argentina at
the beginning of this century. Piazzolla himself was
a leading exponent of the bandoneon, performing and
recording frequently with the instrument.
The score of the Concerto for Bandoneon bears the
title Aconcagua, though this is rarely used
in referring to it. The three movement work is dated
“Sept - 1979 - Oct.” The orchestra consists of
stringed instruments (counting harp and piano in
that number), plus a handful of percussion. In this
context, the “reedy” sound of the solo bandoneon
stands out individually.
The work is dominated by the characteristic
rhythm of the tango—4/4 time with an eighth-note
pulse parsed as 3+3+2—though Piazzolla often
combines different versions of this pattern
simultaneously superimposed to create a lively
energy and a slightly “Stravinskyan” feel to the
rhythmic flow, with many offbeat accents (though, as
a whole, the rhythm is far more regular than in
Stravinsky). The outer movements are for the most
part in a fast tempo with considerable rhythmic
emphasis, in which the orchestral parts frequently
play rhythmicized block chords against the elaborate
solo line of the bandoneon. The central movement is
sustained, lyrical, and poignant, with a sense of
the tragic view of life that lies at the heart of
tango and flirts with sentimentality. But even the
fast movements turn at times to the slower and more
“inward” expression that characterizes the central
movement, and the lively finale unfolds to a
sustained dying away marked “melancolico.”
ALBERTO GINASTERA
Estancia, suite from the ballet
Alberto Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, on April 11, 1916, and died in Geneva,
Switzerland, on June 25, 1983. He composed Estancia
in 1941 for Lincoln Kerstein’s Ballet Caravan, which
toured throughout South America with it. The score
of the dance suite calls for two flutes (one
doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two
bassoon, four horns, two trumpets, timpani and seven
percussionists, piano, and strings.
Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera showed
precocious musical gifts and began to take piano
lessons at the age of seven; by fourteen he was
composing, though he eventually destroyed most of
his juvenilia. He graduated with highest honors from
the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires in 1938;
even before graduation he attracted widespread
attention with the ballet score Panambi
(1936), following it up a few years later with
Estancia (1941); both works dealt with
Argentine life and had a strong element of musical
folklore enlivened by a brilliant ear for orchestral
color and a strong sense of rhythm.
World War II forced Ginastera to postpone
accepting a Guggenheim grant to study in the United
States, but by 1945, as a result of Péron’s rise to
power, he was dismissed from his position at the
national military academy. He spent the next several
years in the United States, including a summer
studying in Aaron Copland’s class at Tanglewood.
Though he returned to Argentina and worked at
reforming the musical life of his native country, he
spent most of his last years abroad, in the United
States and Europe, owing to continuing political
unrest at home. By the late 1950s he had established
an international reputation, and many of his later
works were commissioned by organizations north of
the Rio Grande (two of his three operas, for
example, had their first performances in
Washington).
In his later years, when he was widely recognized
as the most important Argentine composer of the
century, Ginastera composed in a more
“international” style derived from the modernist
traditions of the mid-century. But it was his early
nationalistic ballets that first made his name and
that have continued to be performed most frequently.
Owing to the success of the precocious ballet score
Panambi, Ginastera was selected by Lincoln
Kirstein for a new ballet to be featured on the 1941
South American tour of the Ballet Caravan, with
choreography by George Balanchine. The premiere
immediately established the young composer as the
pre‑eminent musical interpreter of Argentine country
life.
The word “estancia” refers to a farm or cattle
ranch on the vast grass-covered Argentine Pampas.
Ginastera felt closely connected to this landscape
and once wrote “Whenever I crossed the Pampas or
lived in it for a time, my spirit felt inundated by
changing impressions, now joyful, now melancholy,
some filled with euphoria and others replete with
profound tranquility.”
The scenario of the ballet Estancia covers
one day, from dawn to dusk, in the life of the
ranch. There is a thread of plot about a country
girl who despises the city slicker, but comes to
admire him when he proves able to perform the
rigorous work of the estancia. Ginastera’s
music is filled with the rhythmic and melodic
character of native popular song and dance. Estancia
is best known as an orchestral suite made up of four
dances from the ballet—Workers on the Land,
Wheat Dance, Kettle Men, and the typical gaucho
dance Malambo, reflecting the life of those
who work the land and their celebration at day’s
end. Much of the ballet generates its vigorous
character from the simultaneous occurrence of 3/4
and 6/8 time, a motif that particularly dominates
the macho finale Malambo, a dance performed
only by men asserting their energetic virility.